New Beginnings
by RavenSly
Summary: Post Day of Black Sun: When everyone leaves the fire nation capital a bossy new girl and her two friends join the group along with Zuko and Iroh. Behold the fantastic adventures that ensue between the new Avatar Gang. Light shipping but nothing major


A brown and gold object flew across the sky. Unbeknownst to those ridding the object they were being watched.

"Xiao Xing, they're here." Said a deep but young sounding voice.

"Good. Stop them like we planned." Responded a female voice.

Meanwhile on Appa, the flying bison AKA white object flying in the sky…

"Damn, I can't believe we lost." Said Aang, a bald monk boy in orange.

"Its not your fault Aang. They were ready for us. We'll just have to gather everyone up again, and come up with a new plan."

"I guess you're right. Now lets just sit back and let Appa take us away from this horrid place."

As if on cue something big hit Appa from below and sent him flying.

"What the hell?" everyone yelled until they looked down and saw that Appa had been struck by a spike of rock.

"An Earthbender?" the girl in blue, Katara asked.

"But why would they attack us?" her brother, Sakka asked perplexed.

"To test you little kiddies, that's why." A voice responded.

Everyone turned to see a very beautiful girl in red clothing.

"A fire nation warrior!"

"But how'd she get on Appa?"

"Two things. One, I snuck on before you took off, obviously. Two. Just because I'm a firebender doesn't mean I'm with the Fire Nation."

"How can we believe you? Fire Nation People are liars and traitors. You're probably lying to get us to lower our guard."

The girl smiled, "Ha ha ha ha, on another day I'd kill you for a remark like that." She sighed, "However today is not such a day. I and my friends are here to help you…And someone else is as well..."

Sakka unsheathed his sword, "Whadda you mean?"

"Look" she said pointing to a small red dot on the horizon.

Katara took some water out from her canteen and bended it into a thin lens, magnifying the image. It was Zuko in a Fire Nation balloon.

Everyone armed themselves until the girl put up her arm signaling for them to stop, all except Toph, who was blind, but Sokka nudged her to signal for her to stop as well.

"I don't get that boy. First he's the most rabid enemy of you, now he's your ally? A strange one he is." The girl remarked smiling.

"Ally? Zuko? You're kidding right?"

"Not at all. Zuko is now your ally. He's devoted himself to serving you and your friends."

"How do you know?" Sokka asked, skeptical.

"I had my Earthbender friend down there pay that bunker of Ozai's a visit. He spied in on a little conversation Zuko had with his pops. He's with you guys now."

Katara looked at his face through the lens and examined it, "I believe her."

"What!? Katara, you actually believe this flame conjuring chick? She could just be one of Azula's new buddies!"

The girl was instantly in front of Sakka and held him up by his collar with a flame on one hand pointed at him, "You wanna say that again, boy?"

Aang was the first to act, pointing his glider staff at the girl threateningly, "Put him down, now!"

She smirked again, "Fine, I was just reminding your friend not to associate me with trash like her."

With that she dropped Sokka onto the floor. She then stepped forward into his face, "Don't ever mock me like that again. Got that, boy?"

Sokka was thoroughly intimidated by this new girl and began sweating profusely. He managed to nod, uttering a simple and timid, "Uh huh?" from his quivering lips.

"The girl smiled, "Good. Now I have a few things I need you to do." The girl laid down comfortably putting her feet up and resting her head on her crossed arms, "Feel free to disregard my requests but you'll only be hurting yourselves if you do. First, I need you to go over and get Zuko. We can't have him traveling in that shoddy little piece of crap if he's going to be our ally." She looked over at Aang for a response, raising her brow and smirking.

He looked back and narrowed his eyes at her before turning to everyone else and saying, "Alright. We'll get Zuko. Appa Yip Yip!"

Appa turned around and headed straight for Zuko's balloon. The young prince was surprised when he saw the giant bison turn around and head straight for him, but he narrowed his eyes in determination, preparing for an attack. Appa kept getting closer and closer, but still the attack didn't come. Then Appa pulled up alongside the blimp and the firebender girl got out from the small riding compartment and extended her hand, "You comin?" she asked.

Zuko was surprised, "Xing? What are you doing here?" he asked dumbfounded.

"Just get on idiot." She replied flatly.

He took her hand and climbed up the side of Appa's furry body until he was on top with everyone in the saddle. Xing followed him.

She smiled before saying, "I believe you all already know each other?"

Zuko looked over the group until saying, "No, I don't know all of you. Are these your friends?" he said pointing to the two boys in Earth Kingdom clothes and the one boy in bandit clothing.

The three spoke up, "The names Duke." Said a small boy, waving to Zuko.

"I'm Haru, an Earthbender."

"Teo's the name."

Zuko bowed politely, "I can see that you are all friends of the avatar. If he trusts you then I do as well."

Xing chuckled at Zuko's reply, "You've sure changed…" she then turned to everyone, "Okay, next we need to go down and get my two friends. Liang and Chun. They're both benders as you saw before in Liang's little demonstration."

"Fine." Aang replied, still skeptical of Xing, "Appa, Yip Yip." He said, his signature call lacking the normal enthusiasm it possessed. Appa obeyed however and flew down. Xing guided them to the spot where her friends were waiting and the two got onto the large mammal.

Liang got on and immediately laid down and closed his eyes falling asleep almost instantly. Chun on the other hand climbed up and looked at everyone other than Xing like they were from Mars.

"This is the group that's supposed to save the world? They're a bunch of kids!"

"Look who's talking." Haru spat, commenting on the fact that ironically Chun herself was only a little girl of eight. She spotted the only other person her age, Duke and licked her lip, her eyes getting a seductive glow. She crawled up to Duke and snuggled next to him, "Hey big boy. You wanna do something later?"

The duke blushed and began to sweat before saying, "Uh, sure, whadda you wanna do?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe something along the lines of a romantic date?" 

"Sure why not?" the duke replied smiling goofily and sweating enormously.

Xing smiled, "Way to go Chun, you got a date." She then turned to Liang, "As for you…aw screw it. Its not worth it anyway." She then sighed again, "Okay, there's one more person we need to find before we go on our journey."

"Who?" Aang and Sokka asked simutaniously.

"The greatest general to ever live. Iroh."

Zuko got wide-eyed at the mention of his uncle. He ran up to Xing and grabbed her by the collar, "Where's my uncle!? Tell me!!!"

"I don't know. I was hoping you'd know where he went."

Sokka then spoke up, "Wait, you don't mean that old guy we met at Ba Sing Se? The old guy who was with Zuko!"

"The old guy who saved our lives when Azula attacked us. He was the one that allowed us to escape. I agree with the new girl. We need to repay that favor…Aang?" Katara asked.

"…I second that. Alright, our first priority is finding Iroh before the Fire Nation."

"But how are we going to do that? We're only ten kids and two animals. The Fire Nation has an entire army looking for Iroh!" Sokka yelled taking his usual pessimistic attitude.

"We'll find him with Appa. He's faster than any of the War Balloons the Fire Nation has. Zuko, where would Iroh go?" Aang asked, now serious about finding the old man.

Zuko thought a bit before speaking, "He'd probably make his way down the mountain and hide in the valley below. There's a town at the foot of the mountain. It's a little northeast from the bay. He'd probably make his way there and hide out."

"Then that's where we're going."

"But isn't it risky? That valley is crawling with Fire Nation Soldiers and as I've said before, Appa does kinda stick out. Its not every day you see a ten ton flying monster with horns." Sakka pointed out.

"Not necessarily. The soldiers will most likely be cleaning up after the invasion. And they won't be looking for us because Ozai thinks we ran away."

Toph then spoke up, "And they'll probably be busy trying to capture everyone we left behind! They'll be completely occupied!"

Xing nodded, "Right, however Aang, you're the avatar, so until we find Iroh, you're our leader."

Sokka then interrupted, "Wait a minute! That old guy's gonna be our leader!?"

Xing sighed as everyone looked at her, "Don't any of you know who Iroh is!? He is the greatest general of the Fire Nation, perhaps the World! He is a genius of military strategy and he's the perfect person to train all of you! You haven't exactly done so well, so far. I mean I don't mean to insult you guys, but you've lost quite a few times. Ba Sing Se and now here, your track record isn't that great." 

"Hey we've done pretty damn good for a small band of kids!" Katara yelled.

"Perhaps, but you can't be just "a small band of kids" anymore. You're going up against Fire Lord Ozai and his army. You have to become the greatest fighting force this world has seen in 100 years, and Iroh is just the man to make it happen."

Katara began yelling again, "Oh come on!-"

Aang however put up his arm for her to stop, "She's right. We need Iroh if we're going to win this war, and she's also right that we can't just be kids anymore. We need to become warriors, and a man like Iroh is perfect to get us there."

"Aang…" Katara said worried.

"I know Katara, but don't worry, we'll find Iroh and get through this, I promise…Appa Yip Yip!"

Xing then spoke up again, "There is one thing that might get in our way." Everyone tensed up at this comment, "If Zuko was able to figure out what Iroh would do, Ozai probably can as well. Let's just hope that in all the panic caused by the invasion that he wasn't told yet."

Everyone [except Toph for obvious reasons looked at each other worriedly at Xing's observation.

Soon they were over the valley and began scanning it for Iroh.

Zuko was the one to speak up this time although Xing smiled as he did, signaling that whatever he was about to say she had figured out, "Fly lower. If you're up this high it'll be that much easier for them to spot us, and Iroh won't take the main roads. He'll trek through the valley, I know him. He always takes the way with the least chance of conflict…how can we find one man in an entire valley? If he's trying not to be found he'll do a good job of it."

Toph was the one to answer, "I can handle that. I'll find him. Just set me on the ground and I can find anything on it."

Xing nodded, "We're counting on you."

Appa landed and Toph jumped down. Focusing hard on the vibrations she kneeled down and set her hands on the ground, "I've got something! It's a person! Its him!"

"Where is he?" Aang asked.

"Not far, but we'll have some trouble getting to him. There are some Fire Nation troops between us and him. We'll have to take em out if we wanna reach him, and since I can only feel where he is when we're on the ground we should probably go by land."

Xing sighed, "That's fine Toph." Xing stood up and took a commanding pose. Everyone backed away as she began to remind them of Azula, "Haru, I'll need your help."

Haru pointed to himself, "What? Me? Why?"

Xing turned toward Liang before speaking again, "Because you're an Earthbender. We'll need all the Earthbenders we have if we wanna catch up to Iroh and defeat those Firebenders." She then kicked Liang, who had been sleeping this entire time, "Wake up idiot! Its time to go!"

"Wha? Who? Huh? …Why?" he then looked up at Xing who was standing menacingly over him. "What is it X? You accidentally lose your temper and kill a bunch of Ostrich Horses again?"

"No fool!…And that only happened three times!!!"

"It was five times. I've been counting."

"Whatever! I need you and the two other Earthbenders to make an Earth Transportation System or whatever to get us past the firebenders and on to Iroh. Toph's leading this mission so you better do what she says."

Liang got up and scratched his head. He then yawned loudly and looked around until he spotted Toph, "You mean that little Hog Monkey is my new boss?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME PUNK!!!?" Toph screamed.

Liang jumped down from Appa and landed unsteadily on the ground hopping around a bit before he got his balance. He then pressed down hard on the ground turning the ground behind him into sand. He then simply allowed himself to fall onto the bed of sand, "I believe I called you a fat, ugly, stupid, hairy, snot nosed, barefoot Hog Monkey. What are you gonna do about it little girl? He he ha ha ha!"

Toph got red in the face with anger until Katara jumped down to try and calm her down. She set her hands on Toph's shoulders before speaking, saying, "Don't let him get to you. He just doesn't know you yet for the wonderful Earthbender you are! Once he gets to know you I'm sure he'll warm up to you! Right, what was it?" 

"Liang's the name, laziness is the game."

Katara sighed at Liang's blatantly crass attitude, "Liang. Toph is a wonderful young woman. If you just get to know her I'm sure you'd like her!"

Liang opened one eye and looked over Katara. He raised a hand and pointed his index finger at her and smiled, "You're quite a looker. Ooh, that's a nice necklace you got, your mommy give it to you?" he asked saying that last part in a mocking tone.

Katara bit her lip, her face now becoming red as well, She was literally huffing and puffing as she stomped over to Liang in his comfortable position as he lay there with a sweetly smug look on his face. By the time she reached him her eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets, "You wanna say that again?"

He looked at her, his brow raised, "What? I just said it was a nice necklace."

Toph walked up to her and smiled at her, "You wanna take him together?"

"You know it girl!" she said biting her lip but also smiling devilishly as she tilted her head as she stared the smug Liang, who just as they spoke rolled over and fell asleep.

Toph stomped on the ground levitating rocks over Liang forming them into a deadly lance. Katara unleashed some water and made ice bindings over Liangs arms and legs, "Let him have it Toph!"

Both of them smiled evilly while Liang just sat there yawning lazily. Toph brought down her hands and just as Aang and the others were about to jump in Xing raised her arm to signal for them to stop, "Don't worry, Liang can take care of himself."

Just as the spear was about to hit Liang it stopped. Liang smiled merrily as Toph tried her hardest to have the lance come down on Liang but to no avail. Liang simply jerked up his hands and broke the bindings and sat up pushing the lance away. He then stood up easily breaking the bindings of ice Katara had put on his ankles as well. he then took on a battle position and smiled devilishly, "You little ladies wanna fight me for real?" he then walked up to both of them and smiled until he was about to speak and his smile turned sinister, "Because I warn you, when I fight, I fight to kill."

The two of them stepped back in fear at his comment, Katara from the look on his face, Toph from the vibrations she was getting from him.

Aang jumped down, having had enough. He pointed his glider at Liang, "Don't you EVER threaten them again, got it!!!?" he said a look of serious determination on his face.

Liang smiled cheerfully, "Of course. I believe in the "eye for an eye" approach. They threatened my life, so I simply did the same, but as the waterbending girl herself said, I'm sure that once I get to know them that threats like that won't happen, right?" With that Liang laid back down on his bed of sand, "Now lets do this already. I want to get back to sleep. I was having a wonderful dream about murdering some Fire Nation Soldiers."

Everyone looked at Liang with fear, everyone except Toph [obvious reasons, Xing and Chun. They shook it off however as Toph turned toward the direction where Iroh was, "We've lost a lot of time. We have to catch up to him before he reaches the village. Let's go already!" With that her, Haru, Aang, and Liang who was still lying down began moving the earth around them creating a giant spherical platform. The platform began moving over the land and as the four Earthbenders worked together it began to speed up, very, very quickly. It was only a few minutes before they spotted the Firebenders who immediately began shooting flames at them. The four slammed their feet on the ground [except for Liang who simply slapped down his hand raising a semi spherical shield around them that blocked the flames. Toph then felt the Earth and slammed down her feet again sending spears of rock up from the ground and into the soldiers. They then passed them at which point the four Earthbenders slammed the ground again moving the dome shield over to the opposite side of the platform to block the Firebenders flames, although most of them were out anyway.

A few minutes later Toph spoke up again, "We're nearing him! Aang! Try sending up some kind of Airbending flare or something."

"You got it!"

Aang kept bending the platform forward with one hand while with the other he created a ball of air in his hand which he shot up into the sky. Once it was a good distance up it exploded signaling anyone near enough to see it that Aang was in the area.

Iroh saw the flare and smiled, "Zuko, you've finally found your place." He whispered. His brow raised as he heard a faint rumbling in the distance. Squinting his eyes he saw a huge cloud of dust approaching straight from the direction of where the flare was shot up. He instantly knew it was them and released a flare of his own pointing his head up and releasing a torrent of flame from his mouth, staying true to his epithet of "Dragon of the West." The gang headed straight for the flame spire, knowing it was him. They met up a few minutes later and Zuko immediately ran up and hugged his beloved uncle.

"I missed you so much."

Iroh sighed, "Me too prince, or should I just call you Zuko now?"

"Yes. I am no longer the prince of the Fire Nation. I have completely revoked that title. All I am now is just a firebending ally of the Avatar, nothing more."

Everyone looked at Zuko strangely, Katara with an even stranger look than everyone else.

Xing spoke, "General" she said getting on her knees and putting her face to the ground in a bow, "Now that you're with us, I think we should leave. The Fire Nation Soldiers will be swarming over this position any minute. We should leave."

Iroh nodded, "Of course…and Xing, don't disgrace yourself like that. I am no longer a general. I gave up that position when I conceded the invasion of Ba Sing Se. I am just an old man now."

"You're our leader. You are a general, just not on the Fire Nation's side now. You lead our forces. Your will is my command."

Iroh sighed, "Very well, but still please don't bow to me. It makes me uncomfortable to have people grovel to me like that."

Xing nodded and stood, "Everyone on Appa. We're leaving."

They all climbed up onto the saddle and Aang gave his Yip Yip call and they were off heading for new horizons, and new adventures with no idea where they were going.


End file.
